Chapter 7: The Bodygaurd
"Okay, what does 'T' sound like?"
"Tuh"
"Okay. Now try saying the word."
Louis looked at the word on the paper
"T-ul-sa. Tulsa!"
"Good job!"
Pony and Louis were in the kitchen. Ponyboy felt good teaching Louis how to read. He kinda felt sorry for the kid. He kinda felt like he had a younger brother. It was different since he was the youngest in the family.
Suddenly, they heard a door slam and a thump on the couch. Ponyboy spoke up,
"Um. Keep going over these words. I'll be right back."
Ponyboy put the pencil down and walked into the living room to see Dally sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette. He was mad. Soda and Darry walked in right then. They knew he was mad.
"What's wrong?" asked Darry.
Dallas was quiet for a moment. He was just staring straight ahead. He finally answered.
"Johnny's old man beat him again."
The Curtis brothers knew how Dally felt about Johnny's parents. Darry had to hold Dallas back once and when he was gonna go to Johnny's house and beat up his mom and dad.
No one knew that Louis was listening to the whole thing. He felt sorry for Johnny. He wanted to talk to him. Louis got up and sneaked out of the back door. He started to run when he got outside. He saw Johnny at the lot. He had his back turned and was sitting against the wall.
"Johnny!"
Johnny turned around to see Louis running up to him. Louis looked at Johnny as he approached him. He had a black eye and his lip was cut a little. Louis wasn't that surprised though. He had seen worse.
"Are you okay?" asked Louis sitting next to Johnny.
Johnny barely nodded. It was obvious that he was hurt. Louis felt even more sorry for him. Even though, he had just met Johnny, he felt like he was his best friend.
"What did he hit you for?" asked Louis.
"I slept in the lot. He said I shouldn't have been out all night, but he was just taking out some anger. I went back home to change clothes. He beat me when I finished changing clothes."
Louis felt like Dally did. He wanted to beat his parents too. But judging how his dad acted, he probably wouldn't have stood a chance.
"C'mon," said Louis getting up. "Let's go walk around."
Johnny looked up at Louis. He smiled and got up.
They decided to walk over towards the Dingo. They wanted to see what was going on in town today. On their way there, a car pulled up beside them. Two greasers got out of and swaggered towards them. Beer cans fell out of the car as they closed their door. It was obvious that they were drunk.
"We found some ity, bity, greasies," said one of them.
Johnny and Louis backed up. They were both scared. Louis looked at Johnny. He was pretty white. Louis hoped Johnny would get out his knife to scare them. But Johnny wouldn't pull out his knife unless they started attacking. There was no use scaring socs when they were drunk.
Suddenly the socs turned around. Louis and Johnny looked passed the socs to see Dally running towards them. He was gonna save them. A wave of relief swept over both Johnny and Louis.
One of the socs tried to swing on Dally but he ducked the swing. He uppercuted the guy and the soc hit the ground. The other soc tried to grab Dally but Dally grabbed his arm and twisted it around him. He pushed the guy on the ground and started kicking both of the socs.
Dally finally stopped and the socs were on the ground holding their stomachs. Dally spat on both of them.
"Keep messing with these kids," he yelled. He was fuming.
"If you mess with these two, you mess with me. You don't wanna mess with me!"
The socs were still holding their stomachs.
"I can't hear you!" demanded Dally.
The soc barely nodded. Dally calmed down. It was kind of a good thing that these two socs showed up. Dally needed to take his anger out on something. He calmed down and turned to Louis and Johnny.
"Are you two okay?" he asked.
They both nodded. Louis was a little surprised at what he had seen. When he saw Dally take out his rage, it reminded him of something. It was a terrible thought.